More than 72 hours after the earthquake rattled central China, help had a hard time reaching the victims in the remote towns.

At left, rescuers carried a victim they evacuated by boat from Yingxiu to the Zipingpu Dam, as roads were still inaccessible near Dujiangyan, southwestern China's Sichuan province, Thursday.

Meanwhile, rescue operations appeared to shift from poring through downed buildings for survivors to the grim duty of searching for bodies.

At left, rescuers and survivors made their way along a rough road outside Yingxiu in Wenchuan County Thursday.

Rescuers carried a girl from the rubble of a collapsed elementary school in the devastated town of Yingxiu Thursday. Roads were cleared to the border of Wenchuan county, where the quake's epicenter was, and also through to hard-hit Beichuan county.

China's cabinet said the death toll could hit 50,000, state TV reported on its Thursday evening news broadcast.

A young survivor rested in a makeshift tent built on a road in the town of Wudu Thursday.

Earthquake survivors spent the night at a temporary shelter in Sichuan Province's Beichuan County Wednesday.

On Thursday, electricity supplies were restored to most parts of Sichuan for the first time since the quake, though the Beichuan, near the epicenter, remained blacked out, Xinhua said.

Students donated money for the Sichuan earthquake victims at a primary school in Liu'an, Anhui province, Wednesday.